U.S. Foreign Policy and the Essay

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However, the suggested equivalence of the (rightful) criticism of those relationships and support for Israel are fundamentally flawed and invalid. Specifically, the phrase "at the expense of the Palestinians" (p796) ignores the reality of how the Palestinian became "refugees" in the first place, the degree to which Israel tried to negotiate a fair settlement during the Clinton administration, and the degree to which corrupt Palestinian leaders undermined those efforts for personal gain and to perpetuate rather than end violence in the region.

The author also equates the justified and measured U.S. military response in Afghanistan in 2001 with the invasion of Iraq in 2003 under (what in retrospect was) a fabricated justification on the part of the Bush administration. Likewise, the author presents an inaccurate view of civilian casualties and ignores the tremendous extent to which the U.S. military has always made every possible attempt to limit them in wartime.

The author argues (p798) that both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars have decreased rather than increased national security by "adding fuel" to the fire. While this is likely true with respect to Iraq, it is not true with respect to Afghanistan. More importantly, while any negative consequences associated with the latter engagement must be viewed as necessary and unavoidable, that is not true in the case of the former engagement.

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Another specious line of reasoning is the suggested equivalence between the possession of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction by stable nations and (especially) democratic national superpowers and the supposed right of (all) other nations to do so without interference from the West. Similarly, the author inappropriately compares the nuclear arms race between the East and West throughout the Cold War (p802) and a comparable arms race supposedly capable of being triggered now by continued development of U.S. military capability to protect American interests in the current global environment.

The most accurate criticism of the piece is the characterization of the documented abuse by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and other agencies such as the National Security Agency (NSA) under the justification of "Homeland defense" (p801). In fact, both agencies (and others) engaged in widespread surveillance of civilians pursuant to provisions of the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act, many of which later evidence showed were applied inappropriately by various federal authorities, especially during the second term of the Bush administration. Ultimately, that may be the only accurate characterization in the entire piece......

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